Fatal Ties: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 7) Read Online Free PDF Page B

gray storm clouds, which was good because from the look of the catapults mounted to the deck of the zombie ship Naglfar, it would be hard to avoid that many incoming objects.
    “I knew you could handle it. This ain’t no thang.” Connor smirked at me. “I’m going to do my awesome superhero landing in the middle of the ship and fling them across the deck with a surge of pure awesomeness, and while they’re still stunned, you challenge Hrym to single combat.” He glanced at me in a way that suggested he was one hundred percent serious. Only, he couldn’t be serious because what he’d said was absolutely insane.
    “Um, what?” I asked, searching the deck for any sign of the giant. He was nowhere to be found, or if he was, well, I couldn’t pick him out of the crowd. I was assuming he was supposed to be huge though. Maybe he wasn’t? Either way, landing in the middle of the boat sounded like suicide. It would take them less than a second to swarm us, and I did not want to be swarmed by a billion guys with muscles the size of my head.
    “The Vikings have this thing about single combat.” He shrugged which was altogether disconcerting since he was holding me around the waist about a thousand feet in the air above a ship filled with people who’d slit my throat for fun.
    “You want me to fight an ice giant in single combat?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him because he had to be out of his frigging mind. “I thought you’d want me to do something tough.”
    “Well, if you feel like it’s beneath you, I could take a crack at it?” The hint of eagerness in his voice made my stomach churn at the thought. I wasn’t sure why, but he wanted to fight the frost giant. It made me wonder how powerful he was, especially since he didn’t have a magical weapon of any kind. What would he do? Pummel Hrym to death with his fists? That hardly seemed practical.
    “No,” I said, shaking my head for effect. “I’ve got this one. After all, I’m the trained warrior and you’re...” I clamped my mouth shut, cutting off the hurtful response about to spill from my lips.
    “I’m what?” He wasn’t looking at me. Rather his gaze was locked on the ship down below. Holy crap, he was expecting us to go down there so I could challenge Hrym to a duel. I was so going to die.
    “You’re not going to retrieve my sword. It’s mine. I’ll get it back.” I smiled at him, relieved I’d come up with an excuse to keep him from unleashing whatever darkness was pent up inside him. I mean, okay, I felt that way anyway, and he didn’t have to know I’d been about to call him an untrained computer jockey. For all I knew, he’d been fighting monsters for the last several months.
    “Fair enough,” he replied, swinging in a wild arc around the ship. Wind whipped through my lavender hair in a way that made me glad I hadn’t bothered to try to style it. If I had, it’d have just been ruined. Besides, it wasn’t like I did my hair, anyway. “When we get down there, make sure you challenge Hrym to Hólmgang, and not Einvigi. It’s important.”
    I thought about asking why since I was unfamiliar with both terms but decided against it. If I couldn’t trust the guy flying me across miles of ocean, I wouldn’t be living in this world much longer anyway. “What makes you think the giant will accept?”
    “He’s Norse. They’re all about honor. Vidar, one of the Nordic warrior gods who has been helping us stop Ragnarok has assured me no Viking worth his salt will back down from a challenge to single combat. If Hrym does, he risks his men not following him. If you haven’t heard, they’re not the most trusting sort to begin with.” Connor smirked in a way that almost made me think he had everything all figured out, and maybe he did, but I hadn’t lived this long by letting other people push me around like a pawn. At least not willingly, anyway.
    “Naglfar is filled with oath-breakers and worse. Why would they care about